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Affleck's on Tehran CIA hostage rescue film

I am loving Ben Affleck as a writer, director and as the new found actor he has become when he's working under that director. The Town (Filmstalker review) is fantastic and it's criminal that it's not being considered for awards for anything more than support actor, one posthumously and one for a great performance that wasn't even the best part of the film.

So the news that Affleck is about to start work on his new thriller is an exciting one, and that it's going to be about a CIA rescue of hostages in Tehran based on actual events is even more exciting. However there's something that has me a little worried, there's a comedy element being touted.

Ben Affleck has redefined himself like no one could have imagined. With Gone Baby Gone and now The Town he's turned himself into an amazing director who I think could be seen as one of the best in ten years time, give him some more films under his belt and those awards will be pouring in, frankly they should be arriving already but there you go, Filmstalker doesn't do them anymore.

The transformation has been pretty damned amazing, and not just for directing, his acting has taken on an entirely new slant and he's now writing too. I have to say that this Ben Affleck is one that I want to see make films for a very long time to come.

Now there's been speculation about what his next film would be, and The Hollywood Reporter has some exciting news about that fact, that he's going to be adapting an article from Wired magazine about the CIA's rescue plan of hostages in Tehran in 1979. Now won't that make a great thriller for him?

Well, there's a fly in the ointment already that is making me think to the old Affleck and getting me a little worried, and to be fair I was worried when the serious Affleck arrived, thinking that he wouldn't deliver anywhere near the calibre he has, and I was wrong. I could well be wrong here too, as could The Hollywood Reporter who could be getting the wrong end of the stick, perhaps the comedy element won't be in the film.

The title of the article explains much more:

"How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran."

Seriously, that's true. That's how the CIA did it. They even enlisted Jack Kirby, the comic artist and creator who designed drawings and designs for the CIA to use to show that there was a film in development and convince everyone they came across that they really were making a film, and at the same time escape with the hostages.

They used this mammoth ruse to get them in and out of the country to find six U.S. diplomats, free them, and then take them out under disguise pretending they were all part of a production company looking to locate their new science fiction film in Tehran. The film was called Argo, which isn't just the name of my brother's best mate, it's also the title of their fake film and could be the title of Affleck's next.

There have been a few films that Affleck has been associated with but so far there's been nothing concrete. I'm hoping that this is his next one, but I'm just concerned that the comedy aspect could draw him backwards a little and he might lose some of that new found strength with his last two thrillers.

I do hope that he can successfully mix the two, or that the film plays out seriously and, as the article says, there are only "elements of wry humour".

I know there are fans of Affleck of old, but you have to admit this new actor/writer/director Ben Affleck is streets ahead. He's definitely someone I want to see behind the camera more and more.